I’m a huge fan of well designed feedback loops. In software creation, feedback loops prove to be one of the most important, often overlooked, artifacts of the development lifecycle.

Evelyn Van Kelle writes on the O’Reilly Ideas blog:

There is a false dichotomy between full automation and human intervention. Successful quality control combines tool-based measurement with manual review and discussion. At the end of the day, the most effective feedback loops are a mixture of daily best practices, automation, tools, and human intervention.